Share your gallbladder removal experience!

[bodycando 43]

Hi all, 115 pounds down and some pesky cholesterol stones have wreaked havoc in my life! There are many of you who have had your gallbladders removed due to gallstones. Please share your experience here!

Background: I’m not getting a lot of clear information from my doctor about what to expect from removal, just assurances that it’s a very easy surgery. Given my last surgery (gastric sleeve) wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, I would love to hear your experiences with removal. Did you immediately choose for removal? Anyone here choose to control their stones through diet modifications or take a “wait and see” approach? After getting an attack during a work meeting in Korea 😅 I’m realizing removal is probably my best bet. I’m having 1-4 attacks per week for the last three weeks.

[AZhiker 2,252]

43 minutes ago, bodycando said:

Hi all, 115 pounds down and some pesky cholesterol stones have wreaked havoc in my life! There are many of you who have had your gallbladders removed due to gallstones. Please share your experience here!

Background: I’m not getting a lot of clear information from my doctor about what to expect from removal, just assurances that it’s a very easy surgery. Given my last surgery (gastric sleeve) wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, I would love to hear your experiences with removal. Did you immediately choose for removal? Anyone here choose to control their stones through diet modifications or take a “wait and see” approach? After getting an attack during a work meeting in Korea 😅 I’m realizing removal is probably my best bet. I’m having 1-4 attacks per week for the last three weeks.

Get it out! A gall bladder can get infected just like an appendix. You can get very, very sick and toxic from an infected GB, which makes surgery more difficult, risky, and emergent, possibly even resulting in an open surgery vs laproscopic. You really do not want to go there. Open GB surgery used to be one of the most painful surgeries there was, with complications like pneumonia because of the long incision under the ribs which made breathing difficult. Laproscopy changed GB surgery like night and day. If you have already had multiple attacks, it is time for it to go bye-bye.

[S@ssen@ch 745]

Well, my experience is by no means normal, but it's certainly an interesting read:

About 6 weeks after my lap band surgery, I started getting severe pains in my upper abdomen (kind of at the lower end of the rib cage/center) and often accompanied by vomiting mucous/foam. My doctor kept passing it off as getting something stuck, esophageal spasms or my fave: psychological problems. It was happening nearly daily. I felt miserable and progressively felt sicker. I lived on soda crackers and tea for about 6 months until I decided to see a different doctor and DEMAND they check my gall bladder. Testing showed I had sludge in there and the surgeon later told me that my bile duct was stretched out from passing so many large stones. Well DUH!

The gall bladder surgery itself was a breeze. I had some gas pains, but they were very minor compared with the lap band (and gastric sleeve, for that matter) surgeries. I felt better IMMEDIATELY in terms of the gall bladder issues. No more gut-wrenching pains or vomiting. I didn't have that sick taste in my mouth all the time and I could actually eat again. Here's the kicker: they dislocated my hip during the gall bladder surgery! Yes, you heard that right. Somehow, they dislocated my left up and I woke up in EXCRUCIATING hip pain and needed a few weeks off of work to recover from THAT.

Moral of the story: if you know you have gall bladder issues, these won't go away on their own. The surgery for gall bladder removal was a much easier recovery than bariatric surgery and you will feel 100% better afterward.

[GeTnBackuP 192]

OMGosh pls just get it taken out soon. Clearly it’s necessary and best to do it sooner than later. I had mine taken out at the ER as the absolute worse pain ever, bent over writhing type pain, must have been hilarious as I drove myself, ran into the ER threw myself on my knees begging for relief! It was far prior to my VSG and laparoscopic and recovery was so easy for they removed a diseased organ opposed to stitching one up (your stomach). They only alterations to your diet will be how you tolerate dairy and fats and at least for me my body still likes to mess with me because some days I can drink heavy cream in my coffee with no intestinal distress, other days I get mild cramps to a dash to the loo. Definitely a balancing game many days but far better to deal with than the almost daily pain I was having and the final explosion of absolute abdominal misery! And since you’ve had the sleeve you already know how to recover only this will be far, far easier! Just do it. No need to wait it out any longer, your body doesn’t need the added stress of an infected or burst gall bladder. You’ll be fine. Best of luck.

[FluffySaysForkIt! 823]

I had mine out 8 weeks after my RNY surgery. It was a super easy recovery and I felt 1000000% better right away. It had messed with me for years. I only wish I had done it sooner!

Get that sucker outta there!

[bodycando 43]

Thanks everyone, I have a pre-op appointment for next week! I hadn’t thought of it being dangerous or the risk of infection with waiting—good to hear that it was an easy decision for everyone.

[bodycando 43]

On 11/06/2019 at 14:37, S@ssen@ch said:

Well, my experience is by no means normal, but it's certainly an interesting read:

About 6 weeks after my lap band surgery, I started getting severe pains in my upper abdomen (kind of at the lower end of the rib cage/center) and often accompanied by vomiting mucous/foam. My doctor kept passing it off as getting something stuck, esophageal spasms or my fave: psychological problems. It was happening nearly daily. I felt miserable and progressively felt sicker. I lived on soda crackers and tea for about 6 months until I decided to see a different doctor and DEMAND they check my gall bladder. Testing showed I had sludge in there and the surgeon later told me that my bile duct was stretched out from passing so many large stones. Well DUH!

The gall bladder surgery itself was a breeze. I had some gas pains, but they were very minor compared with the lap band (and gastric sleeve, for that matter) surgeries. I felt better IMMEDIATELY in terms of the gall bladder issues. No more gut-wrenching pains or vomiting. I didn't have that sick taste in my mouth all the time and I could actually eat again. Here's the kicker: they dislocated my hip during the gall bladder surgery! Yes, you heard that right. Somehow, they dislocated my left up and I woke up in EXCRUCIATING hip pain and needed a few weeks off of work to recover from THAT.

Moral of the story: if you know you have gall bladder issues, these won't go away on their own. The surgery for gall bladder removal was a much easier recovery than bariatric surgery and you will feel 100% better afterward.

That’s insane that they dislocated your hip during surgery! Was the surgeon leaning on your hip or something?!

And thanks for sharing your experience—did you have to make any major diet modifications after surgery? How long did it take you to get back to normal?

[S@ssen@ch 745]

7 hours ago, bodycando said:

How long did it take you to get back to normal?

In terms of the gall bladder surgery, the recovery on that was probably only a couple days. And no, I made no major diet modifications after surgery.

Typically, someone who has had their gallbladder out needs to reduce fat intake. I was already on a bariatric diet at that point, so I made no changes.

[ahillig 136]

I had mine out 3 years before my gastric bypass and that surgery was rough, I would even venture to say it was probably the worst surgery I had. I felt like crap for a solid two weeks after the surgery but one day felt totally fine. It was a rough surgery for me, my gastric bypass was easier. I experienced mild dumping after having it out and haven't had that yet with my wls. My surgeon kept me out of work for a full 6 weeks (I was working full time as a paramedic back then) but felt well enough to go back after 3. I was back to work after my gastric bypass after a week as a nurse.

[Frustr8 7,886]

And not every "open" gall bladder is a Right Subcostal incision. Mine was a Right Paramedian, 4 inches above, 3 inches below the naval and just a finger- breath to the Right. See my Father ( Rest in PEACE, Daddy) had an arteriovenous anomaly in his colon , an area where there was no intervention of capillaries between, lost 2.5 feet at Grant Hospital in Columbus. Well I guess. while he was also removing my appendix, he wanted to see if there were any signs I could have inherited it.
And yes, not Too Much fun healing from it, although I did okay , I was 30- some years younger and took it as a just a matter- of- fact THING.
True STORY on ME: When I went to meet Dr Needleman at OSU, I told him I would rather an OPEN surgery if he couldn't do it laproscopically. He kind of drew BACK and Said " Do YOU realize how HARD it is to heal an Open Incision?" I smiled and flipped up my T-Shirt tail and showed him my scar and it is about a 1/4 inch wide, even after all these years. He Grinned and Said " Point taken and I WILL Keep That in Mind!"
The detriment for ME? Every since. I have had borderline malabsorption of fats and have golden yellow stool instead of the usual medium to dark brown. And I do have occasional or I used to before RNY, bright yellow colonic mucus. But those are special into ME, most people go blissfully on with little or no impairment to their digestion and I'm sure YOU'LL be in the later catagory.
MY mama had hers out 6-8 mobths before ME, accused me of wanting SURGERY out of envy. The Joke was on Her, I had many more stones than he, my. g.b. was in worse shape than hers and I even went jaundiced the weekend before my SURGERY. Had to wait 5-6 days before mine, surgeon only operated once weekly. Bet if I had been at OSU instead of Doo-Dag Central here, they would have whipped that " rotten critter" out quickly instead of making ME wait. When you're Jaundiced , I Feel, you go from Elective to Mandatory operation, but This was back in the Early 80s- so things are Much Better Now!

[evilpixie20 9]

Gallbladder was a million times easier than this! This surgery knocked me on my butt and I've had 2c sections lol.

[looly 361]

I'm having my gallbladder whipped out in two days because of stones. How long was it before you guys started to do strenuous exercise, like swimming or running? It was about 6 weeks after my sleeve, but I was wondering if it was more or less after the gallbladder surgery?

[tarotcardreader 196]

On 11/5/2019 at 8:09 PM, bodycando said:

Hi all, 115 pounds down and some pesky cholesterol stones have wreaked havoc in my life! There are many of you who have had your gallbladders removed due to gallstones. Please share your experience here!

Background: I’m not getting a lot of clear information from my doctor about what to expect from removal, just assurances that it’s a very easy surgery. Given my last surgery (gastric sleeve) wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, I would love to hear your experiences with removal. Did you immediately choose for removal? Anyone here choose to control their stones through diet modifications or take a “wait and see” approach? After getting an attack during a work meeting in Korea 😅 I’m realizing removal is probably my best bet. I’m having 1-4 attacks per week for the last three weeks.

Gallbladder can gangrene which can - >death. I would go with doctors opinions not strangers on the internet. 🤞🏼🍀 Also if you dont trust your doctors opinion enough you should get a second opinion From another doctor. That might help you to make the best decision for your anatomy with your private health history that only the doctors know and not us here on the forum